They made not the slightest inquiry as to whether Saul was wise or
foolish, good or bad. They did not ask God's counsel, or trouble
themselves about God; so they proved themselves unworthy of being
free. They turned, like a dog to his vomit, and the sow to her
wallowing in the mire, cowardly back again into slavery; and God gave
them what they asked for. He gave them the sort of king they wanted;
and bitterly they found out their mistake during several hundred
years of continually increasing slavery and misery.
There is a deep lesson for us, my friends, in all this. And that is,
that God's gifts are not fit for us, unless we are more or less fit
for them. That to him that makes use of what he has, more shall be
given; but from him who does not, will be taken away even what he
has. And so even the inestimable gift of freedom is no use unless
men have free hearts in them. God sets a man free from his sins by
faith in Jesus Christ; but unless that man uses His grace, unless he
desires to be free inwardly as well as outwardly--to be free not only
from the punishment of his sins, but from the sins themselves; unless
he is willing to accept God's offer of freedom, and go boldly to the
throne of grace, and there plead his cause with his heavenly Father
face to face, without looking to any priest, or saint, or other third
person to plead for him; if, in short, a man has not a free spirit in
him, the grace of God will become of no effect in him, and he will
receive the spirit of bondage (of slavery, that is), again to fear.
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